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Summary History of Denver School Desegregation from a Park Hill Perspective

Summary History of Denver School Desegregation from a Park Hill Perspective

GREATER PARK HILL _
COMMUNITY, INC. ^^C^M^^ 2823 Fairfax Street, Denver, Colorado 80207/(303) 388-0918
Summary History of Denver School Desegregation
From a Park Hill Perspective
I. Q: Why did Park Hill residents file the lawsuit in June 1969 that
eventually led to citywide school desegregation?
A: Residents, black and white, were outraged at the intentional
segregation of Park Hill area schools by the school boards of those
years, as shown by:
1. School board's refusal to allow black and white children to
be bused from overcrowded schools in Park Hill to schools with
vacancies in South Denver.
At that time white children were being bused routinely from
Harvey Park and Bear Valley, where school buildings hadn't been
completed, to schools in south central Denver such as Wash Park,
University Park, Steele and Asbury. But not black children.
Instead, "mobile classrooms" (house-trailer-type units holding
about 30 kids) were installed on Park Hill school playgrounds. Smith
school in the late 1960s had 12 of them on its playground, Stedman 8,
Hallett and Park Hill 4 each. Of the 29 such units in Denver schools,
28 were in Park Hill.
2. "Optional" attendance areas set up in the early 1960s
around Park Hill elementary schools such as Stedman, Smith and
Hallett, once black children began showing up at those schools.
Purpose of the "optional" areas: to allow white families to move
their children out to the nearest still-white school. (Once a school
like Stedman became majority black, the optional area was abolished,
to keep blacks there.)
3. Another evidence of segregative intent was gerrymandering
of the attendance area at junior high schools such as Gove. Its
attendance area In the middle 60s included a strip about two blocks
wide running up the north side of Colfax to about Quebec. It would
have been much more logical to make the Gove attendance area
rectangular, north to 26th Avenue, east to Forest or Hudson. Why the
long, narrow strip? For fear black kids might get into lily-white Gove
from north of 17th Avenue.
4. We also had become increasingly aware that there really were
two school systems in Denver: a first class white system, and a second
or third class minority system. The differences showed in such things
as:
-- Ragged, worn-out, hand-me-down textbooks, and not enough
of them, at minority schools; all the new ones went to white schools.
There were no multicultural or bilingual courses. Black teachers were
allowed to teach only at minority schools; there was no affirmative
hiring or promotion. Minority schools also got only beginning white
teachers, fresh out of college. After they had gained experience, they
were moved on to white schools.
-- As a result of these and other deficiencies, the academic

GREATER PARK HILL _
COMMUNITY, INC. ^^C^M^^ 2823 Fairfax Street, Denver, Colorado 80207/(303) 388-0918
Summary History of Denver School Desegregation
From a Park Hill Perspective
I. Q: Why did Park Hill residents file the lawsuit in June 1969 that
eventually led to citywide school desegregation?
A: Residents, black and white, were outraged at the intentional
segregation of Park Hill area schools by the school boards of those
years, as shown by:
1. School board's refusal to allow black and white children to
be bused from overcrowded schools in Park Hill to schools with
vacancies in South Denver.
At that time white children were being bused routinely from
Harvey Park and Bear Valley, where school buildings hadn't been
completed, to schools in south central Denver such as Wash Park,
University Park, Steele and Asbury. But not black children.
Instead, "mobile classrooms" (house-trailer-type units holding
about 30 kids) were installed on Park Hill school playgrounds. Smith
school in the late 1960s had 12 of them on its playground, Stedman 8,
Hallett and Park Hill 4 each. Of the 29 such units in Denver schools,
28 were in Park Hill.
2. "Optional" attendance areas set up in the early 1960s
around Park Hill elementary schools such as Stedman, Smith and
Hallett, once black children began showing up at those schools.
Purpose of the "optional" areas: to allow white families to move
their children out to the nearest still-white school. (Once a school
like Stedman became majority black, the optional area was abolished,
to keep blacks there.)
3. Another evidence of segregative intent was gerrymandering
of the attendance area at junior high schools such as Gove. Its
attendance area In the middle 60s included a strip about two blocks
wide running up the north side of Colfax to about Quebec. It would
have been much more logical to make the Gove attendance area
rectangular, north to 26th Avenue, east to Forest or Hudson. Why the
long, narrow strip? For fear black kids might get into lily-white Gove
from north of 17th Avenue.
4. We also had become increasingly aware that there really were
two school systems in Denver: a first class white system, and a second
or third class minority system. The differences showed in such things
as:
-- Ragged, worn-out, hand-me-down textbooks, and not enough
of them, at minority schools; all the new ones went to white schools.
There were no multicultural or bilingual courses. Black teachers were
allowed to teach only at minority schools; there was no affirmative
hiring or promotion. Minority schools also got only beginning white
teachers, fresh out of college. After they had gained experience, they
were moved on to white schools.
-- As a result of these and other deficiencies, the academic